DIVERSITY VISA LOTTERY PROGRAM

After the tragic terrorist attack in New York, President Trump recommended eliminating the Diversity Visa Lottery program (DV Lottery). Many of our blog readers have likely not heard of the DV Lottery. Here are some key points about the DV Lottery:

In 2015, which is the last year for which we have statistics, close to 14.5 million people around the world applied for the 50,000 DV Lotter green cards.

Those who are selected will be notified through the Entrant Status Check, E-DV Website. DV Lottery winners are never notified by hard copy mail or email. There is widespread fraud around the DV Lottery program, so applicants must ensure that their notification of lottery winning is in fact from the US Department of State.

DV Lottery winners must still meet all eligibility requirements before obtaining a green card. The requirements include the same security screening undergone by family-based and employment-based green card applicants before obtaining a green card.

In addition to the standard screening, all DV Lottery winners must appear for an in-person interview with an Immigration of Embassy Officer.

If processing of the DV Lottery winnerís application cannot be completed before the end of the US governmentís fiscal year, due to background checks, resource limitations, or other issues, the DV Lottery winner's application will be denied, and the opportunity to obtain the green card will be lost.

Comments

The previous green card lottery program, AA-1, which ran from 1992 to 1994, and was available only to applicants from mainly white countries with very few exceptions, and had big set-asides for Ireland and Poland only, provided for automatic waivers for visa fraud and previous deportation. I know this from experience because I represented an applicant in this program (one of the few who was not from Europe) who needed and received both waivers without the slightest difficulty.

The DV lottery program, which Trump and his white nationalist supporters want to abolish, since most of the beneficiaries are from Africa and Asia rather than Europe. contains no such automatic waiver provisions.